LCD vs. OLED: Which One Wins?

Posted by Anchorage Warehouse on Dec 12, 2016

When talking about LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) vs. OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diodes) TV’s there is a lot of technical jargon crowding the internet and it is easy to get lost in it all. So we’re going to take the guess work out of which TV is going to show off the big game or the most recent episode of the Walking Dead the best.

LCD

LCD’s have been around for a while now (since the 80’s) and the technology continues to evolve and develop. At its basic level the picture we see is achieved when white light goes through red, green, and blue liquid crystals sub-pixels to create colors. The amount of light controls the color intensity and black is achieved by masking the white light.

OLED

OLED technology has also been around since the 80’s but has recently enjoyed a huge leap in popularity since it’s adaption to cell phone screen usage. To form the images we see, each pixel has its own light source, so it doesn’t need an external light source or a color filter. In fact the sub-pixels each have red, green, blue and sometime yellow in them. Because of this, to achieve black, the light in that pixel is simply turned off.

Tech Goes Head to Head-Let’s see who wins!

Viewing Angle: OLED Wins (sort of)

Basic LCD TVs can not compete with OLED for viewing angle, however a variant of them called LCD IPS (In-Plane Switching) can offer almost the same quality of viewing at similar angles to the OLED TVs. However most LCD TV’s are not IPS though both LG and Panasonic have good versions.

Black Level: OLED Wins

LCD displays can never achieve true black because they can only create it by blocking the light, which is never perfect. Since OLED displays simply turn off the pixel and any light ceases completely, they can achieve a much truer black than any LCD display.

Cost: LCD Wins

While OLED is popular in many smart phones these days, the tech is still expensive to produce on a large scale makes OLED displays much more expensive than their LCD counter parts.

Contrast Ratio: OLED Wins

The contrast Ratio is that between the darkest black and the brightest white. Since LCD can only achieve black by masking the light, OLED displays continue to dominate in this category.

Brightness Levels: LCD Wins

Better brightness levels means a better picture in ambient light. Since LCD displays use a separate lighting source, they have greater capacity to produce more light, making them the winner in this category.

The bottom line is you have to decide which is most important to you. The OLED beats most LCD screens in just about every comparison of image quality. However, LCD displays cost less to purchase and to operate. So the final round comes down to budget vs. quality. Your choice; which ones wins?